Friends & Family Advice | Offbeat Bride

This is Offbeat Bride's archive of Friends & Family Advice posts.

We've got it all for you: compromising on guestlist issues, managing family expectations, negotiating wedding party dramas, rising to bridesmaid challenges, and OH so much more.

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One way to bounce back! Thanks to redowa for submitting this the Offbeat Bride Flickr pool

You can rest assured that it's going to happen at some point during your wedding planning process: that perfect venue for your vintage submarine-themed wedding is going to fall through. You battle with your in-laws to try to keep the guestlist under 100 people, and you find yourself putting stamps on 200 invitations. Your dreams of locally-sourced, delicately spiced catering is going to be replaced by your mother's "beef or chicken" menu that reminds you of funeral food (true story!).

You're going to be frustrated. You're going to feel like you gave in to family pressure. You're going to feel disappointed and gritty and maybe even a little pissed off. Wedding planning disappointments: THEY WILL HAPPEN. Since there's no avoiding them completely, the best you can do is have your emotional toolkit ready to help you recover.

I'm here to help with that.

I am getting married next weekend and I am, to the surprise of myself and those around me, not a wreck. Hurrah! However, there are some things I have noticed, about the way people are treating me that is causing some strife. So here is my guide to handling me now that I'm a bride.

How often do brides/grooms end up no longer particularly liking some friends from their bridal party? Quite a few of my friends have gotten married in the past couple of years, myself included, and I'm wondering if I'm noticing a scary trend. I was talking to one friend, and she only talks to one of her bridesmaids now, and her bridal party was created from a very strong friend base for her. I'm still very close to most of my bridal party, with the exception of one person, and I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Is it common to drift apart from those we've been so close to?

So, we've talked about How to tell your guests they don't get a +1. We've gone over 10 blunt-but-loving ways to tell people they're not invited to your wedding. But what happens when a non-guest takes it a step further, and actually RSVPs to your wedding? You know, the wedding you never invited them to?

With my upcoming nuptials many family members have been asking whether I will be including members of the family that they know for a fact have nothing but bad wishes for me. To which I have honestly said "No." My reasons are simple.

My well-meaning friends have forced me to decide on a wedding-related New Year's resolution. Keep reading to see why and how I need to go on a wedding-talk-shut-down.

Oh, the trials of the wedding guest list. Especially if you're throwing a smaller wedding, dealing with frustrations from family and friends who aren't invited to your wedding can be grueling. I wrote about this in my book — dealing with your wedding's guest list can make you feel like a big mean club bouncer, deciding who's in and who's out of the VIP line.

While there's no way to make everyone happy, I do believe that there are a few key phrases you can use to let uninvited guests to that you love them, you SO appreciate their interest, but no: they're still not invited. Below, I've wrassled up ten of my favorite copy 'n' paste guest list rejection responses.

I've noticed in planning my wedding that people are questioning my decisions a lot more than they usually do. People, especially families, don't tend to question other life decisions as much as they do weddings. With that in mind, here are five rules for wedding planning that are incredibly sensible.